Emerging methods for prostate cancer imaging: evaluating cancer structure and metabolic alterations more clearly

Abstract

Imaging plays a fundamental role in all aspects of the cancer management pathway. However, conventional imaging techniques are largely reliant on morphological and size descriptors that have well known limitations, particularly when considering targeted-therapy response monitoring. Thus, new imaging methods have been developed to characterise cancer and are now routinely implemented, such as diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), dynamic contrast enhancement (DCE), positron emission technology (PET) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). However, despite the improvement these techniques have enabled, limitations still remain. Novel imaging methods are now emerging, intent on further interrogating cancers.